


and they were roommates (omg they were roommates)

by virvatulilla



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, M/M, side character uses ze/zir pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2019-11-16 14:51:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18096461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virvatulilla/pseuds/virvatulilla
Summary: Vicos moved in with his boyfriend Draien, who however is so clueless about their relationship that he thinks they're just roommates. (Draien also thinks his love for Vicos is definitely unrequited)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yep_Klance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yep_Klance/gifts).



It could be tough living together with your unrequited love, that had been obvious to Draien from the start.

“I got to admit that despite everything, I still like living with Vicos,” he told Luna. “He’s really considerate.” Draien had called her in the middle of the night to ask for a place to sleep for the night because he’d been upset with Vicos. Morning coffee was waking him up nicely.

Luna rolled her eyes, but smiled at him. “Of course he is,” she said. “To you at least. He likes you.”

Sipping his coffee, Draien raised his eyebrows at his friend. “Well, duh,” he chuckled. “We have been best friends for years. He wouldn’t ask me to move in with him if he didn’t like me.”

Luna covered her mouth with a hand and looked out her apartment window for a moment. Then she got her attention back to Draien. “Sure,” she said flatly. “We can get back to that later, but I don’t think that’s what you wanted to discuss today.”

“No, you’re right,” Draien admitted. “I wanted to talk to you about me finally giving dating a go.”

That sure surprised Luna, and she started coughing after inhaling some of the sip she had taken. “Are you actually considering that?” she asked after she got her breathing in control. “What happened? I thought you didn’t want to even think about dating someone else than Vicos.”

Draien lowered his gaze to the paper cup in his hands. “Well, last night we were having a totally normal movie night,” he explained. “You know, cuddling as always, but then at one point Vicos started giving small kisses on my neck.”

When Draien was quiet for a while, Luna sighed. “And then what?” she asked. “You guys do stuff like that all the time. Did he hurt you?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Draien assured quickly. “I just… I felt so guilty because it felt  _ incredible _ . I had to fight myself to break away, because I don’t want to do anything sexual with Vicos, not when he doesn’t love me like I love him.”

A little bird flew down on the windowsill, and Luna looked at it for a long while, probably thinking hard about what she wanted to say. Eventually she turned to look at Draien in the eyes. “Can I ask what made you come to the decision that you need to date someone and not… talk that through with Vicos?”

Draien raised his hands in defense. “Impossible,” he said. “I can’t confess my feelings to Vicos, I’m too afraid of driving him away. Our friendship is too precious to me, I don’t want to risk losing what we have.”

Luna pursed her lips. “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll get you another cup of coffee and you can tell me more about how I can help you with dating.”

 

* * *

 

“I just don’t know what I did wrong,” Vicos sighed in exasperation as he was pacing around the room. When Draien hadn’t been home in the morning he had called his best friend Asheden, who had come over and now sat on the couch with a weary look on their face.

“Maybe what you did was too much for Draien this time,” Asheden suggested dryly. “But why are you dragging me into this? Can’t you just talk to him?”

Vicos let out a sigh and flopped down on the couch beside Asheden. “I know I should it’s just…”

It was good that Asheden was used to waiting for Vicos to collect his thoughts, because they were running all over the place. “Every time I suggest talking about our relationship, he changes the subject,” he said after a while. “Ever since we moved in together, he’s been increasingly unwilling to talk about his feelings, and I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if he’s having second thoughts about us.”

Asheden placed a hand on Vicos’s shoulder. “Don’t jump into conclusions without asking your boyfriend about his feelings first,” they said. “I know it’s hard to talk about those things but you seriously need to do that if you want to salvage your relationship before both of you get hurt.”

Vicos sighed again. “I know, I know,” he said. “I just thought since we had agreed to take it slow with physical contact, I could test the waters with him, but now I’m afraid I crossed a border with that, and I honestly don’t know how to bring that up in a conversation.”

Suddenly Asheden’s phone rang. They glanced at it, and quickly typed a message in response. “Sorry about that,” they said, putting the phone back into their pocket. “But Vicos, if this is about sex again…”

“It’s not about that,” Vicos argued. “It has never been about that with Draien. I know very well that Draien is openly asexual, and if he wants to have an exclusive relationship with me without sex, it won’t be an issue. I love him too much.”

Sighing a little, Asheden pulled Vicos into a hug. “That’s the least you can do,” they said. “Now, have you checked your phone whether he’s answered your… multiple worried texts already?”

Vicos gave a laugh and pulled away from the hug to do just that. As he was reaching for his phone it suddenly buzzed and made him jump. “It’s from Draien!” he exclaimed and quickly wrote back;  _ when are you coming home? _

As he waited for Draien to reply, Vicos started pacing again. Asheden looked slightly amused watching him.

Draien’s reply took Vicos by surprise. “He says he’s not coming home until late tonight,” he told Asheden, looking up at them with worry. “Fuck, I messed up, didn’t I?”

Getting up from the couch, Asheden put a hand on Vicos’s shoulder. “Let’s not worry about that now,” they said, staring deep into Vicos’s eyes. “If he’s not coming home until late, there’s not much you can do to help the matter except forget about it for a moment and try to do something else. Why not come over to my place today? We can watch a movie, play some games… what do you say?”

It wasn’t a hard decision. “Okay, I’ll come over,” Vicos agreed. “It’s been too long anyway since I’ve seen my godchild.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hohohoho

 Surprisingly enough Draien had already gotten a date for the same evening. He hadn’t seen it coming, and neither had Luna, who wanted to at least escort him to the venue safely. Luna also instructed him to either have someone pick him up or at least tell someone else besides her where he’d went.

“Is all that really necessary?” Draien sighed. He didn’t really want to ask Vicos to pick him up, but he was the only sensible option. When Luna stared at him in a way that told him the issue was non-negotiable, he sighed again. “Fine. I’ll text him my location and ask him to pick me up at ten. That’s pretty reasonable, right?”

“Right," Luna said. “It’s getting late soon, we should probably get going.”

Since Luna didn’t have a car, the two of them took the bus. Draien clearly wasn’t the only person with plans of going out that night. Only the other such people on the bus seemed to have already started the night somewhere else, and were definitely more enthusiastic about the night than Draien.

The bus ride was long enough to get into Draien’s head. He wasn’t so sure that meeting a stranger was the thing he needed the most that night. When he stared through the dirty bus window into the blurred city lights behind it, Draien realized the only thing he truly wanted was to go home to Vicos, nothing more.

But there was no way he was going to admit it now.

When Draien and Luna stepped out of the bus, Draien felt sick to his stomach. Why had he thought this would be a good idea? He was suddenly glad Luna had made him take all those precautions. He would just text Vicos to pick him up earlier…

His hesitation must have shown up on his face, because Luna tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “You know, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to," she said kindly. “I’m sure Frela and Rofen will make an exception for you for this one no men -movie night.”

“No need," Draien answered automatically, and immediately regretted saying it. He had been searching for an escape, but flat-out denied it from himself.

Luna looked at him for a moment, then patted him on the back. “Well, our ways part here then," she said. “I hope you have fun, and if you get into trouble or Vicos doesn’t come pick you up, call me, okay?”

There was no turning back. Draien nodded, and wished Luna to have a good time with her friends. After she had disappeared from his sight, Draien thought for another while whether he should just go home instead, but his pondering was soon interrupted.

“Draien? I didn’t know you were the type to go clubbing.”

It was Kúura, Vicos’s close friend. The two of them preferred the term ‘fuck buddy’, but Draien never really wanted to think about the whole deal. “Well–” he started, but Kúura was already dragging him along.

“Today is my birthday, so you have to come along," Kúura insisted, holding Draien tight in zir grip. “No objections.”

Even though the night had made a dramatic turn, Draien wasn’t complaining. Going dancing and drinking in a queer club with Kúura and zir friends sounded infinitely better than a date with someone he didn’t know at all. He did feel a tinge of guilt from standing his date up, but the thought soon escaped when they entered the club.

The music was so loud that Draien could feel it in his chest. As soon as Kúura stepped onto the dance floor, he let out a holler announcing that it was zir birthday. Everyone who had heard it started cheering and a couple of Kúura’s friends hoisted zir up on their shoulders.

“My mother is paying tonight, so drink up!” Kúura shouted to his friends. “The only payment for you for a drink is a kiss for me!”

Draien chuckled. That would definitely get Kúura some attention from people. Getting drinks for the prize of a kiss probably wasn’t the first time for a lot of the people in the club. There was already a line forming, and Draien noticed too late that he was in the line as well.

“Hey, why are you denying me this pleasure?” Kúura said to Draien when he was about to leave the line just as he reached zir. “Or are you not allowed to kiss people?”

That comment made Draien turn back. “My attraction to Vicos shouldn’t be standing in the way of fooling around with people,” he mumbled and stared Kúura in the eyes. “I regret to say I’m not much of a kisser,” he told zir.

“Leave that to me,” Kúura said, and Draien closed his eyes as ze put a hand behind his head.

 

* * *

 

 

It was unusual enough for Draien to ask Vicos to pick him up at a bar, but even more so not to be there at the given time. Vicos had even went in and asked the bartender, but they hadn’t seen anyone matching Draien’s description that night.

That was really worrisome. Vicos bit his lower lip as he checked his phone again. It was already half past ten, and Draien hadn’t even read his messages, or answered his phone. “Where did you go?” he muttered, glancing both ways on the street while sending yet another message to Draien. It wasn’t like him to go drinking without Vicos, and it also was unusual for him to ask to meet somewhere at a certain time and be that much late.

After a couple more anxious sighs Vicos decided to call his boyfriend again. If he still wouldn’t answer, he’d have to start going through their mutual friends and asking them if Draien was with them.

As he listened to the line ring, Vicos felt a tight knot in his stomach. Maybe Draien was avoiding him on purpose. Vicos grunted. He should have tried to discuss their relationship sooner – now he was afraid it was getting too late for talks like that.

Still no answer. Trying to hide as much of his anxiety and worry as he could push beneath the surface Vicos walked to the bouncer, asking them if Draien had been around.

“I think so, yeah,” the bouncer said after looking at Draien’s picture, and Vicos let out an involuntary sigh of relief. “But he didn’t come in. Some white-haired dude in a party hat and his friends whisked him away.”

This information concerned Vicos greatly until he remembered something and checked his phone. And like he had suspected, it was Kúura’s birthday party that day. He asked the bouncer directions to the club in the description, and was relieved that it was close by.

As Vicos entered the club, the first thing he heard was Kúura’s usual birthday party song. It didn’t take long for Vicos to find Kúura in the crowd, dancing – with Draien. 

Draien didn’t look too intoxicated. Vicos felt his breath stop in his throat when he saw how intensely he was looking at Kúura, moving along with zir movements. Vicos didn’t even see the people around him or around those two, because his eyes were glued on them. 

Vicos knew very well from experience that Kúura’s dancing turned him on, but he had never seen Draien dance like that before. He felt a strong urge to join them, he wanted to slide his hands on Draien’s body, and kiss him so hard he would see stars. Before he could do any of that, Kúura noticed him.

“Vicos! You’re here!” ze exclaimed gleefully. “Care for a drink for the price of one kiss?”

“Thank you for the offer but no,” Vicos declined with a light smile. “I came here to pick Draien up.”

Draien’s eyes widened as he apparently just remembered asking Vicos to pick him up. As another song began the three of them moved off the dance floor and into the lobby. 

Draien glanced at Kúura. “I guess I’m going home now,” he said. “Thanks for the night.” 

Kúura gave Draien a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. “You need one too, Vicos,” ze announced then and hugged him with enthusiasm. “Hey, if you don’t want a drink for the price of a kiss, how about a kiss for the price of a drink?”

Vicos chuckled. “That’s fair, but you have to ask my boyfriend if you can kiss me on the lips.”

Kúura shrugged. “Hey, Draien, can I kiss Vicos?”

Draien was looking at his phone, writing a message with a frown on his face. “Go ahead, I guess,” he muttered.

Vicos frowned. Draien’s tone and choice of words didn’t sound like he was okay with it. Vicos cupped Kúura’s face in his hands and gave zir a kiss on the forehead. Kúura had no objections to that and returned him with a kiss on the cheek.

As they parted and Vicos pressed a bill in Kúura’s hand, ze sighed. “I think it’s a bit unfair you can’t kiss me but he can”, ze said quietly, and before Vicos could process what ze had said and asked what it meant precisely, Kúura had disappeared back into the dance floor crowd. 

Vicos turned to Draien to leave. Neither of them said anything or looked at each other before they were home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oof stuff just happened

The issue wasn’t brought up until the morning after. 

After making sure Draien drank water Vicos tucked him into bed. Draien fell asleep almost immediately, but Vicos couldn't make himself lie down next to his partner. His mind was racing with thoughts and doubts he had never had before during their relationship.

To clear his mind Vicos went on a late night jog and a long shower after that. He simply didn’t know what to think about Draien kissing Kúura. Even though he understood the situation, his chest hurt from the thought of Draien kissing someone to get a free drink. As far as Vicos knew, Draien very rarely drunk, and he’d only kissed Vicos once before, on a dare years before they started dating.

Vicos let the water from the shower drum on his forehead. He didn’t want to be angry with Draien, especially because now that he thought about it, they had never really discussed their relationship. And maybe Draien had a different idea of it than he did.

_ Well, that’s about to change tomorrow _ , Vicos thought to himself. Before anything like this had happened, he’d thought he didn’t mind not being specific about their relationship. Now he knew that especially when it came to someone he loved as much as he loved Draien, it wasn’t enough to not define the relationship further.

After stepping out of the shower, Vicos walked to the bedroom. For some reason he stopped on the doorstep, watching his shadow formed by the vestibule light fall on Draien’s sleeping face.

_ Maybe he didn’t want to kiss Kúura _ , Vicos thought as he watched Draien, but discarded the thought with a sigh. He knew Kúura pretty well, and even when ze was drunk, ze wouldn’t do things like that without the other person’s consent.

Although maybe Draien hadn’t known what he wanted. Vicos quietly kneeled next to the bed and moved his face close to Draien’s – so close that he could feel Draien’s breath on his lips. They didn’t talk about feelings a lot, but there was one recent comment Vicos suddenly remembered.

Draien had said in a nonchalant way that it was often easier for him to believe he didn’t deserve anything, so he denied himself the things he wanted the most. Vicos had wanted to address that comment, but Draien hadn’t allowed him to say anything.

“It’s like a curse,” Vicos whispered and gently stroked Draien’s hair. “Maybe I love you too much to be able to have a good relationship with you. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have started a relationship without a proper talk.”

Draien stirred a little, and Vicos stumbled back, holding his breath. After a few seconds he concluded Draien wasn’t waking up after all and let out a small sigh. The way he was feeling it didn’t feel right to go sleep next to Draien as if nothing had happened.

Silently, Vicos backed away from the room and carefully closed the door.

 

* * *

 

It was a Sunday, and usually that meant Draien waking up in Vicos’s arms. They would cuddle at least until one of them had to go to the bathroom, and often continue after breakfast. This Sunday was different, though. When Draien woke up, he rolled over to face in Vicos’s direction as usual.

This time, however, his arm didn’t find Vicos. That made Draien jolt awake. The bed on Vicos’s side was cold and empty, and the apartment was silent as well.

The first thought that popped into Draien’s head was that Vicos was angry at him and had rushed off, leaving him alone at the apartment. He jumped out of bed and rushed into the living room. When he saw Vicos sleeping on the couch, his legs almost gave up underneath him.

It was still relatively early, and Draien quietly retreated back to bed. His heart was pounding. He and Vicos had come home together, so why hadn’t Vicos been in bed with him?

Draien laid down and browsed his phone to get his mind from overthinking. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work. His thoughts kept returning to Vicos. It was clear to Draien that this new change was because of something he had done, but what had he done to upset Vicos? Every time before this they had been able to resolve things before going to sleep, but now Draien had fallen asleep as soon as he got into bed. He was even wearing the same clothes from Friday.

_ And on Friday we– _ the thought made Draien jolt up. That had been their movie night. Draien buried his face in his hands and let out a litany of mumbled curses. Of course it was his own decisions that had started the whole series of events that had led into their current situation. If Driaen had been able to keep his emotions in control better, he wouldn’t have left that night, he wouldn’t have thought of going on a date, and his night wouldn’t have had included kissing the one person Vicos loved; Kúura.

Because of course Vicos knew Draien had kissed Kúura. After all, he had found them on the dance floor trying to get into each others’ pants. It was no wonder Vicos was unhappy with Draien after witnessing such a thing.

A quiet but solemn dread set into Draien’s stomach. All possible and impossible what ifs were swirling in his head, making him so restless he couldn’t stay in bed. Spurred by his anxiety Draien rushed to change his clothes to whatever he could grab first. Hands trembling, he walked to the living room.

Vicos had woken up and turned his eyes from his phone to Draien, who rushed into the room with anxiety-powered urgency. “I’m sorry,” he blurted out right away. “I understand my actions hurt your feelings, but next time I’m going to leave the people you love to you. Just please don’t hate me for what I did.”

The look on Vicos’s face was mostly puzzled. “What do you mean?” he asked and rubbed his eye with one hand while extending the other towards Draien. “Come over here so we can have a conversation.”

Draien’s heart beat even harder in his chest, and he squeezed his hands together to keep them from visibly trembling. He sat carefully on the edge of the couch, and while Vicos did seem worried about his behavior, he didn’t touch him, like he usually would have. The knots in Draien’s stomach tightened.

After a silence that lasted too long for Draien’s comfort, Vicos sighed. “We need to talk about us,” he said. “After what happened, I’ve been thinking–”

“It didn’t mean anything,” Draien blurted, grabbing Vicos’s hand with both of his hands. “You’re right to be upset with me for kissing Kúura, but ze did it with a lot of other people as well, so I didn’t think it would be anything special if I did it too. It was wrong of me, especially since I know how you feel...”

Squeezing his eyes shut, Vicos shook his head slowly. “Hold on,” he said. “I think I’ve heard you say that before, but something tells me it has only brought us to misunderstandings. What do you mean by saying you know how I feel? Towards whom?”

The questions took Draien by surprise, and he retrieved his hands to his lap. “I mean it’s obvious,” he murmured. “Even though you don’t put labels on your relationships, it’s obvious you’re in love.”

That earned him a small huff. “Who am I in love with?” Vicos asked. Draien couldn’t look him in the eyes, but his voice was extremely gentle. “The person who has been the most important to me for a very long time.”

Draien swallowed. His mouth felt dry. “It’s Kúura,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

For a time that felt like an eternity, Vicos didn’t say anything. Then he grabbed Draien by the shoulders, making him look him in the face. “ _ How _ ,” Vicos began, but quickly released Draien and stood up, ready to pace his energy out. “I don’t– that’s– why would you– I–” Vicos had trouble wording his surprise. Draien braced himself for what was about to come when Vicos finally stopped pacing, and kneeled at Draien’s feet.

“I’m not upset with you,” Vicos said solemnly. “I’m more upset with myself, because I just assumed that you and I were on the same page about our relationship and our feelings. But now I know I was sorely mistaken.”

Something Vicos had said gave Draien’s heart a confusing jump. “You’re welcome,” he said with a dull expression, already regretting what he had said earlier.

“No, Draien,” Vicos said with a certain urgency in his voice, when he noticed the change in Draien’s being. “Whatever you have told yourself my feelings are, that’s not true. I thought I told you how I feel about you, but it seems like I have to be way more direct to get through to you.”

Draien tried to pull away weakly. “I already know I’m your dearest friend,” he mumbled reluctantly. “You don’t have to make such a big deal out of it.”

“Apparently I do, because my attempts are still not getting through,” Vicos insisted. “Draien, I love you. Not as a friend, but as a person. I’m utterly, thoroughly, irrevocably in love with you. And I have been for years.”

Hearing Vicos say such words was like a dream Draien had had for countless nights. It actually happening felt too much like a dream. “Are you making fun of me?” was the only thing that fell out of his mouth.

There was a flash of defeat on Vicos’s face. “Am I still not getting through to you?” he asked, exasperated. “Do you need a moment to calm down? Maybe take a shower or go for a walk around the block to get you out of that denial for a hot second.”

Sighing, Draien got up. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said reluctantly. “I’m going to take a long shower.”

Processing what Vicos had told him and accepting it took a lot of brain power. Draien had to try convincing himself it was not a dream and try to think about the situation calmly, but after stepping out of the shower, fingers all wrinkly, he just walked into the living room full of questions.

“What do you mean you’re in love with me?” was the first demanding question from Draien’s lips the moment he stepped into the living room. Vicos, who had been on his phone, looked up with his mouth agape.

“Well?” Draien demanded when Vicos didn’t answer right away. “What do you mean you were mistaken about our relationship? I thought we were roommates, what did you think we were?”

Vicos bit his lower lip and didn’t look Draien in the eye. “For the past four months, I thought we were dating,” he admitted quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t clarify it, but I thought that was the idea when you suggested we should move in together. I did ask you about it, and you said yes.”

It was Draien’s turn to sit down on the floor. “When did that happen?” he sighed, tousling his wet hair with one hand. “Wait– you were  _ serious _ when you asked if we were moving in as a couple?”

Vicos nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said as Draien groaned. “I tried to talk about our relationship, but you never wanted to. But if you don’t want to continue–”

Draien shushed Vicos before he could finish that sentence. Their eyes met, and something in Vicos’s gaze gave Draien the spout of courage he needed to get the right words out. “I’m in love with you,” he blurted quickly. “Have been for years. I might have been too busy setting for what we had in the moment and thinking it was too precious to risk it with asking for something else. And I know how much you need sex, and I don’t, so I just didn’t think–”

It was Vicos’s turn to shush Draien. “You don’t have to worry about those things for me,” he said with a gentle look in his eyes, taking Draien’s hand. “If we start dating – for real this time – no matter how we are intimate together is enough for me. During this time that I thought we were together, I’ve only kissed someone four times, after you said it was okay. But you’re allowed to say no to all that too. I want to be respectful to what you are comfortable with, whatever it is.”

For a moment, Draien only looked at Vicos in silence. What did Vicos want him to say?

That thought made Draien stop.  _ What do  _ I _ want to say _ ? he asked himself, and the answer to that was not difficult. “Do you want to be my boyfriend for real, starting now?”

The relief on Vicos’s face bubbled over and into Draien’s heart as well. “Yes, please,” Vicos beamed. “I would love that! Ah, that makes me so happy I want to kiss someone.”

“Then why don’t you–  _ oh _ ,” Draien’s ears started burning when he realized the way Vicos was looking at him was probably intentional.

Vicos’s head was slightly tilted to one side, and when he licked his lips, Draien got an irresistible urge to kiss him. So he did. 


End file.
